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Arc 26: Sting - Dissecting Worm
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This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass.
Complete list of potential triggers: here
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Dissecting Worm: The sister podcast to Brockton Bay Book Club where our hosts Jacob and Allan discuss adapting Worm for television.
Episode Description:
Tangle. Proposal. Gestation. Parasite. Migration. Shell. Agitation. Destination. Plague. Infestation. Pray. Crushed...Dissection.
Get in contact with us @brocktonbaybc
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Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:10) - Dissecting Begins
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Worm and its Themes
00:00:00
Speaker
Worm is a web serial by JC McRae, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans dot.wordpress dot.com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon dot.com slash wildbo. This story isn't intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.
Arc 26: Complexity of Final Arcs
00:01:09
Speaker
Take that, you worms. We're back. Arc 26, Alan. Made it to arc 26. We're here. And I, um, just right up front, I was not prepared. I remembered, uh, these like final few arcs until the end, uh, kind of blur together. And I i forgot how involved arc 26 was. we got ah We got a lot to get through. Yeah. Yeah. I also feel like.
00:01:39
Speaker
And this is usually our case with a lot of these first episodes. I feel like we just did one like this, but I feel like there's not actually going to be that much to talk about the episode because we're still trying to put together what the heck.
Final Season Storytelling
00:01:56
Speaker
the season is. Yeah. I think that is the bulk of this is, uh, what, or what are we doing? And how much of this arc gets it? We'll, we'll get through it. We'll go through the arc. I think we we'll go through the arc for sure as we do. But, um, but yeah, I think the, I think the biggest thing is going to be just, you know, what, what story are we trying to tell here in this final season? Which is crazy. We made it to the end. What's our,
00:02:25
Speaker
What's our arc? Where do we go? We obviously know how we end. We got to get there, you know?
Transition from Season 4 to 5
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, this kicks us off. Yeah. but Michael, you, you would remember more better than I did. We do a recap episode for season season four or four.
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah. Wait, we totally. Yes. yeah Yes, we did. Yeah. We did. It's coming back. Yeah. Yeah. Don't you remember all the helpful information that we all learned from it? Oh boy. We learned so much. See? Yeah. Yep. I just checked. We did. Yeah. Okay. There we go. As long as that is out there. Cause as I'm like going back over my notes, I'm like, part of it's like, uh, where do we end season four and start season five? There's a lot of overlap.
00:03:14
Speaker
Well, we did have that. Yeah, we had that conversation. I think twice we talked about it with arc 24 and then with arc 25. Yep. Because that's trying to figure out. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Trying to figure out kind of where to place the ending. I think we landed on sort of somewhere with arc 25 being our, uh, season opener arc slash end of season four. Like this is kind of the, a bit of a combo.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's got the, you got the time skip it's, you know, how you put the time skip in there. Cause let's just start with that. The time skip's gone. We already talked about this. that We just absorbed into different season breaks. Then yeah the time skip is that time has passed every time we jump a season. Like, yeah, exactly. I think that's, I think that's, that's valid. Yeah. It's not the two, two years happened between.
00:04:09
Speaker
You know, two chapters, it's two years has happened over the course of five seasons. Right. Yeah. Very, ah very believable about, you know, we just start Taylor off at 16 and Tada. She graduates at some point in time and moves up to. Yep. Honestly, I don't even, but you know, she doesn't even need to become a part of the protectorate proper. She could stay a ward.
00:04:40
Speaker
Well, and again, that goes back to like, we can change the, the, the prophecy too. So it's not two years. We can make it whatever it's convenient for the story to some, some passage of time. Right. Yeah. And then yeah yeah, just space out the events of the story so that they fill in that time with an indefinite amount of time in the world somewhere in the future.
Slaughterhouse 9000 Arc: Adaptation Challenges
00:05:04
Speaker
ah Prophecies, prophecies can't be wrong. like firing a shotgun at a dartboard. Something's gonna hit the bullseye. I think I'm going to hit the board. But yeah, but let's, um I think there's a few big parts of this arc that we want to incorporate, but to to jump into it, i think I think the big question is, are we doing the Slaughterhouse 9000?
00:05:34
Speaker
I have said this before, I don't like the Slaughterhouse 9000. I do like the idea of hunting them down. Yeah, it is funny, right? Like like i'm I'm in agreement. I really, when I'm reading this arc, like I love the fights. I think they're quick, they're fun. They're really bizarre. They're dealing with all sorts of like really unique enemies, like rapid fire serial killers.
00:06:07
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, it's something with the writing that I'm, I'm the opposite case where I do not enjoy this. And if you want to hear more on that, listen to the Brockton Bay book club episode where we all get mad at Alan. That's what we've been there. That's okay. But it's, it's actually funny. Oh, you you say with like rapid fire and I'm going to be processing this out loud for television because in book format, I believe.
00:06:33
Speaker
that it is too rapid fire, but the fights are also somehow feel too short and also take forever to like appreciate them either way. And I wonder if in film without you having to explain all that stuff, if the process of having, you know, weird clones and dealing with their powers really quickly and just not explaining most of that would process a lot better in film.
00:07:02
Speaker
And it's funny you say that because that's kind of where I was going, but just from a different angle. So I agree. I don't think the slaughterhouse 9000 arc like that, that villain arc ah works as well written as I'm sure wild bow intended. That does seem to be a ah somewhat consensus amongst the fans. It's just sort of fine, but it's not, um it's not.
00:07:27
Speaker
It's not the the ultimate fight. I think people were expecting getting to Jack. However, I think of really cool way you can kind of spin this because when reading it, you get the insight information. These are all prior slaughterhouse nine members that have been cloned and resurrected. And you're kind of getting that explained to you ah exposition style and reading. But when watching, you're not going to do that.
00:07:54
Speaker
So either one, you've got to just like have tattletale or something like that. Just explaining every fight to the audience. And here's a nice guy. He's a nice guy, you know, just kind of going one at a time yeah or.
00:08:09
Speaker
You don't do that and you kind of rewrite it so rather than. Clones of old slaughterhouse nine members what have they've been doing this whole time is recruiting like the worst of the worst from around the globe something to that effect.
00:08:26
Speaker
So where you're not having to explain the whole like vat of clones. um And instead of like, Oh no, there's nine k nixes. It's just one nix. You just kind of eat that. And you just change it till we're like, Jack just powered back up, recruited a bunch of really crazy sons of bitches. And now you got to fight them again. And like, this is the big fight is is getting through his new army, if you will, more like slaughterhouse.
00:08:53
Speaker
2.9, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I like, okay.
Villain Tension and Character Arcs
00:09:00
Speaker
So here's, here's the goal. The big thing here is gold morning. That is what we are trying to achieve. to go And, and ah so to that end, um, and and I would argue that we are also trying to wrap up Jack's promise to Theo.
00:09:24
Speaker
as well. Right. I mean, that's the, yeah, Theo's whole arc is. Yeah. um and So those are the two things we have to accomplish. Those while they do run one into the other. Um, and we do talk about that, uh, Jack is the one who's going to end the world. So we've got to fulfill that prophecy as well. So those do run one into the other. We can change how those bump into each other.
00:09:52
Speaker
I think a good idea for part of that is this is not a slaughterhouse 9000. This is the end of dragon and defiance hunt for Jack. I think that simplifying it, they've been hunting him down. He's gotten away and has gone into hiding for a little bit, but he's back and is up to some scheme, maybe he's doing another recruitment run in the city, uh, the way he did before and dragon and, or, you know, like you said, he's recruited, you know, under their noses, some of the bigger bad guys. And so they bring in Weaver and golem and others to buff the, uh, the Jack slash kill squad. You know, this is, this is sort of like a mini, the mini end bringer fight.
00:10:50
Speaker
where like volunteers, you know ah you're you know only if you want to, this isn't as big as a end bringer fight and you are going to be killing. this you know That is the focus here. like So you know very few people are signed up for this kill squad, but we do have them and Weaver and Golem are part of that. They go in, they're like, hey, you know how we've been killing, slowly whittling off You know, the remainder of the slaughterhouse nine that he didn't take with him or, you know, how we've been searching for where he's been hiding. Maybe we found him or maybe he's just showed back up. And I think you could do pick one of the wards fights, pick the Topsy fight, um, with the, what is that? The ad apps. Yeah. Pick the ad apt fight. Do that as our like opener to, you know, set the tone.
00:11:47
Speaker
i make it a little bit more lighthearted in terms of this is, you know, what is standard for their living right now, you know, fighting crime, being a hero. And right then end the first episode with we found Jack. Yeah, I think i think that works.
00:12:05
Speaker
I think that works. I think the um the difficult thing to meld, which would be regardless of what direction we chose, is the two things. One, the urgency with our characters, mainly Taylor, in trying to finish Jack without triggering the end of the world. Right? That's like her little anxiety attack this whole arc.
00:12:29
Speaker
But then the second part is, too, for the for the audience's point of view, assuming no knowledge of the story, of course, that you want to sell this the end of this arc, wherever this goes in the season, right as this foe victory. and And you really want to sell, because the audience is on Taylor's side. Taylor's against everyone else, because Taylor believes that Jack is the end of the world.
00:12:58
Speaker
as does Theo and like two others, but nobody else really does, right? But the audience sympathetic to Taylor is like, no, Taylor's right. It's got to be Jack because she's the protagonist. She's got to be right. And of course, that's the whole like mini twist of this ending is that of course that it's not. So you want to build up that moment so that when we get to that point,
00:13:19
Speaker
it still feels a little rushed, which is why in my mind, this is happening like in the middle of the season, right? The final, final bits of this arc is like, you know, 10 episode season. This is the end of episode five, as we get to this point, however we want to stretch it out, just so that the audience can be like, oh wait, they're winning, but we're only on episode five. What's going on? Like, you know, it's, you want that, like, that weird uneasiness. So, and you don't want to lose that by,
00:13:49
Speaker
making by by taking away Taylor's sort of, what's the word I'm thinking of, pedestal, I guess. That's not the right way of saying it, but taking away her her focus on Jack. Dream focus. yeah Yeah. And giving it to a lot of other characters because then it takes away the odd, it sets it up so that the audience isn't going to be fooled as easily by the twist that Jack wins if you know that kind of thing but I do I do like I do like the idea of ah comboing it with dragon and defiant and sort of carrying their sort of c-plot that we've given them here which I really like
00:14:29
Speaker
I think that makes really logical sense to just sort of carry that into
Birdcage Subplot and Character Interactions
00:14:33
Speaker
this moment. And and it's fine if they're also kind of team tailored by this point, right? Because that's some nice little character growth for old Arm Master. Yeah, that makes sense. i do I do like that, though. I think though i think that works well. ah Do we want to do another mid-series and villain switch-up?
00:14:56
Speaker
I thought about that, but it's not a villain switch-up. It is the end of the show. And I think there's a little difference there because really, once we hit the p Scion turn and Gold Morning begins, the show is over. It's just the end of the world from that point on. All we're watching are all of our favorite favorite characters dying.
00:15:25
Speaker
and life barely surviving this climactic apocalypse. um It's just like we see here, there's like, oh, put pedal to the metal, you know, it's just the show is just foot on the gas. When Sion blows up Europe, the foot's not on the gas, like the tank has exploded.
00:15:47
Speaker
And the remaining few episodes, however we want to space it out, what's a bridge we'll have to cross, that's for another episode. um But like, it's not so much a mid-season turn as like, and here we go. You know, it's just, it's the end of the series. That's it. It's the big fight. It's the climax. So yeah I think it's a little different, but I think that is, that's a good point you bring up because I want to, we do want to make sure we're not just kind of retreading old season rhythms.
00:16:17
Speaker
It's tricky. Yeah, because I think like for the final season, I think you could almost do one whole episode that's an epilogue. So that's a one episode. I mean, it's four arcs of fighting, which ah there's a lot that happens. So I'm guessing you could split a lot of those into two. Yeah, I think so. And again, fighting is the easiest thing to stretch for time if you want to.
00:16:45
Speaker
well i like There's a lot that happens. Don't forget there's like raid on Cauldron. There's yeah the the reveal. There's fighting. There's a lot of fighting inside of Cauldron that has nothing to do with with the with the actual um Zion. And I mean, i you have big, big fighting moments like the oil rig fight, um things like that, where we've we've mentioned kind of offhand before,
00:17:14
Speaker
wanting to give more focus to important character deaths that the audience is probably not going to be too fond of. So we want to make sure we take some time to really respect those as opposed to just like the in the background moments from Taylor's perspective. So like things like that that are going to just demand more time for sure. Yeah. Uh, this would be a great point in which to, to pad for time with Jack and stuff.
00:17:43
Speaker
would be to cut to the birdcage. I know we've left that alone for a season or two. We have, yeah. Now would be a great time to bring up the birdcage and possibly Amy figuring out the end of the world for herself or like how the powers operate. Yeah. you know and And maybe this time around we don't have the Simmerg stop it. um It's just kind of too late.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah, you know, maybe this is more for for book club theory. It's funny you said the simmered because I was thinking about that the other day and the simmered stops the message in that in the one interlude, right?
00:18:26
Speaker
So the whole time I was thinking about also cause I was started reading our 27, uh, but I was like, what is the Simerg's goal? And don't spoil it if you remember, cause I don't, and it would be fun to experience again, but just say yes or no. Like, is that resolved or is it kind of left pretty ambiguous that the Simerg is planning something? From what I I don't think there's a,
00:18:56
Speaker
I don't think there's a plan there. I think it just had to do with like, Oh, if they figure this out, like literally they'll figure out why I exist maybe. So just like self-preservation essentially. Yeah. I think it's a self preservation thing. Okay. Okay. Because like, never forget they get the Simmerg to fight Sion.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the similar again, Leviathan. So it's not a matter of preserving Sion, right? It's, I think it is a self preservation thing. but Like if you figure out how powers work, like on the cosmic scale. Got it. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Then I'm fine with that. I'm fine with giving Amy a little bit more to do. And that's something we can also touch on the birdcage in season four, you know, obviously,
00:19:51
Speaker
We're just hitting big bullet points here. When we went, we, we go back and seen it out, storyboarded out. I give, I give the birdcage some more time if I wanted to. I mean, and this would be a great reveal with Amy with all her tattoos to see her now that a lot of times has passed. Oh, true. Right. Time passes. Exactly.
00:20:11
Speaker
um I think it's relevant ah like it would not be relevant to how the other rest of the story goes to habit and other things because you're basically staying in a self-contained spot. Like the characters who are in the birdcage aren't getting out of the birdcage. So they don't, they literally have no interaction or point to showing them in the previous seasons This season, however, would be prudent because not only are you having Amy maybe drop hints about she's like, I think I kind of like, as I'm figuring out powers and how they interact with the body, I think I have a sense, some sort of sense or like what they are, baby, um that they're alien. You know, they're not natural naturally occurring to the human body. Right. um
00:21:02
Speaker
But then you can also have, you know, uh, bone saw and Jack talk a little bit about that while they're doing their shtick. And ultimately you have them in the bird cage. The reason like revealed, why are we even showing them this season is because they open the bird cage and, and Amy becomes really relevant when she's the one her and bone saw two people we would kind of, you know, maybe look at, uh, are the ones who do the operation on Taylor. Uh, you mean at the, at the, at the end? Yeah. That's how she goes. Keppri. Yeah. I, I'd want to read it again. I, I, I really like in my mind, the conversation that her and
00:21:57
Speaker
that Taylor and Amy have there at the end. So I'm hesitant to adjust that, but I would want to reread it. It's been a few years and yeah see what works there. Yeah. um And, you know, i'll once we get there,
Jack's Recruitment and Plot Development
00:22:12
Speaker
obviously. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not going to read ahead. What are you crazy? Yeah. I want it all to be fresh. So I'm going off of memory. ah Yeah. No, I like what the whatever conversation they have there. I don't think we'll be ruined by Amy slowly talking to the other prisoners and revealing what she knows about powers. And that she's kind of figured out about powers to be, you know, the heads of the departments in the bird cage. And then at the same time, bone saw and Jack, maybe, yeah I mean, we could just cut to bone saw and Jack talking about powers that as bone saw has done more research, she's figured out more and more.
00:22:53
Speaker
And like, that could be a great reveal that like, yeah, yeah that bone saw maybe has figured out science connection to the powers. And that's why Jack, instead of by incident or by accident, like it's intentionally like Jack's like, Oh, I need to get to, I need to get to sign on. And here's the big thing.
00:23:23
Speaker
I think you make the point of Jack. And I know that this is talked about slightly in the book, but I think it needs to be more overstated, which is everybody knows that Jack himself can't end the world, but they don't want Jack to get his hands on someone who could. Obviously, Bonesaw is a pretty good contender.
00:23:53
Speaker
Um, just given like the, like plagues and stuff. So like bone saw could very much be one. And, and let's say they just, they take her, they like get her in prison or something relatively quickly. So she can spout off stuff about powers and also eliminate her as a like, Oh, she's not the one that Jack's going after or like was going to use. We've got her. She's not the end of the world.
00:24:22
Speaker
So what S class threats are out there. And then people start listing off, Oh, nil bog, uh, sleeper. And they're like, Oh yeah. Yeah. We just got to make sure that he doesn't get in touch with it any of them. Cause we don't know what he'd be able to do. And Sion is one of those. And I think having a fake out where like, they think he's going to no bog. And I think having that be a fake out of some kind.
00:24:52
Speaker
We're like, no, he's actually headed towards Sion. And mean it putting a timer on that would be really great. you know Oh, Jack's out. They're like, start to fight Jack and you know or you know track him down. And all of a sudden they get the call. Dinah's like, ah the timeline has just jumped. Like, this isn't this isn't a like the numbers are sky the numbers are going up. The numbers are going up.
00:25:21
Speaker
they've skyrocketed like the end of the world is imminent. We are talking like a matter of hours now. You know, this was something we thought was like maybe a month off that we were preparing for or something like that. Well, and we get, so there's a couple of interesting things that I really like in this arc. One is that Jack is not aware that, that, uh,
00:25:46
Speaker
the heroes, the Protectorate, see him as the end of the world, right? um It's not until the torture of that PRT agent in his little dimension when he's got Aster and all of that, that it kind of spills out. You could probably theorize, could we don't get a Jack interlude, you know? um You could probably theorize that he's maybe picking up on something, but at least to the reader, it's not he's not aware that this is a thing that everyone's concerned about for him. He's just an agent of chaos. He just loves chaos. So there's that element that's kind of fun to play with. The other thing is that ah they were about to win. Remember um ah when Dinah and Theo were talking and he's like, run, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. And then what's the color now? Red.
00:26:41
Speaker
It's now, and a the like you said, numbers skyrocket in the opposite direction. The world can be saved. There's this moment where like you really, like they probably would have won if Sion just wasn't quite as close as he was. you know um like They were so, so close to winning. But I do like, I really like the idea of the fake out, but I think you could even do it even subtler where they're just like rattling off S-class threats.
00:27:10
Speaker
You know, anyone got location on Sion cause they're always watching Sion. Oh, he's, yeah, he's over Norway and then like checking in every now and then and with other, you know, S class threats or Sions over, you know, just out of the picture. Don't worry about it until you just get a call, like checking in on Sion. He's two miles away or something like that. You know, yeah just kind of that kind of thing. I feel like there's some really cool ways to probably build tension with that. Yeah.
00:27:35
Speaker
I like it.
Focusing on Gold Morning
00:27:37
Speaker
Okay. So here's, here's the thing. Okay. So we have a bunch of weird stuff that happens that I don't think is great for television because we're not trying to focus on this. We're trying to get to gold morning. And a lot of this is going to feel out of place and such an aside. So slaughterhouse 9,000 first one. I think nil bog is a big distraction, not in the plot, but as a device. Like I don't like it.
00:28:05
Speaker
Interesting. i I'd be wary about either we kind of make it we we don't spend as much time dealing with nil bog or we just I don't know skip him. it's It's funny because in my mind I agree it's a little awkward but in my mind I think it maybe would be something we we maybe shorten, but do more settings like that, where what we get is like maybe, you know, have a long two episodes, it doesn't matter, where we kind of just get these little ah reoccurring beats of Jack escapes to go find another powerful ally, Taylor and the Protector at chase him. So he finds no bog, that doesn't work.
00:28:52
Speaker
Then maybe he goes and finds, uh, you know, pick another one. We can take our pick there on his recruiting spirit, honest. exactly and Okay. Yeah. Yeah. If we're going back to the recruiting spree that he's trying to rebuild that slaughterhouse nine after being gone for so long and having lost basically everyone except for bone saw like but that he's trying to rebuild a new slaughterhouse nine. and Then I'm on board.
00:29:19
Speaker
Like it lulls you in, especially if we, especially if, uh, you know, our, our people in the PR department shut the fuck up and don't say that this is the final season. Yeah. Right. right Then you're like, Oh, Jack, Jack is back. Yeah. You know, and he's trying to make the slaughterhouse nine better than ever. but Right. Right. And then you're, you're lulled into like monster of the week. Almost like you monster of the week with overarching plot.
00:29:48
Speaker
if we do that, that I'm on board that then, then no blog isn't just distraction. He's just the monster of the week, kinda. Exactly. And that could also set up, give you a really easy setting. You know, again, take your next monster of the week, easy setting for the the fight between Theo and Jack into that whole scene could feel way more natural. And you could ah then lean into the twist and the scion reveal and golden morning, I think would hit a lot. You could, you could really hide that in this sort of formulaic monster of the week, you know, format that you're kind of giving. Yeah, it could work. Of course, then we got to give them a couple more threats, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, this is perfect time. You have some like,
00:30:47
Speaker
big boys, you have some shitty boys. ah So like, obviously no blog would be like a big one that you spend time on, but he could also be recruiting psycho Selma and winter for the first time. Right. Like they aren't, they aren't new slaughterhouse 9,000. They are ah new people that he has brought in. Yeah, definitely.
00:31:12
Speaker
And, and you could have them fuck up some of his recruitment where like he goes to recruit. Right. I forget who the red pimple blister guy is, but, uh, read Mr. Hulk carnage. I don't remember what his name is. Crimson. There we go. Okay. yeah okay okay They go to deal with Crimson and, uh, like they, they just kill Crimson. They get to him before, uh, Jack does. So, you know, win for them and they go back and forth.
00:31:42
Speaker
But yeah, I think that would be good. You know, you could also like, maybe this would be a fun place. I was actually thinking about this the other day, thinking about the arc, because where they go into here whatever that other dimension is with his like warehouse of vats and everything like that. Yeah, the, uh, the toy box, the toy box. Yeah. I was like, what if that's just like,
00:32:04
Speaker
What if that's blastos layer? And we do, we kind of merge blasto. I do like where blastos interlude is though, but you could, you could kind of even just move that there. If you wanted to give blasto like a bit of, a mo you can just move that here and and make that one of the threats, you know, or something like that. Okay. So this is a stretch just to connect things, but hear me out. Gray boy is a villain that got taken out a long time ago. It was part of the slaughterhouse nine, um but nobody's nobody has known where he's gone. Like everybody assumes that he got killed. even But, you know, it's really hard to kill him ah when, in fact, he is essentially the reason that toy box is hiding, like is hidden. is He is just a a power source or maybe the better word would be like a cloaking shield where he keeps them in some weird temporal state.
00:33:02
Speaker
so that they're outside of time or whatever. right So Jack going, finding out about them, going there is also how he recruits. He's there to recruit Gray boy again. you know they've been They've kept you from me, Gray boy. Let's go. ah you know It's been so long. Let's get you out there and at you know back at it again.
00:33:27
Speaker
i I actually, I like that. I like where we're going with this a lot. This is, I have no desire to put this in, but let's throw it out to the fans.
Exploring Alternate Scenarios
00:33:37
Speaker
What do you guys think of this? I was looking up but like other as S class threats and in in in worm. And apparently on an old Reddit comment, Wildbo talked about what it would look like if Trickster was an S class threat. So like if he had a second trigger,
00:33:56
Speaker
And basically just getting the ability to line of sight, swap, uh, matter with matter. So like just being able to basically pull people apart, swapping half their body with the body of the wall, things like that. Just like brutal. If we wanted to give me the, it's kind of what, it's kind of what scrub does, but on the same plane. yeah Exactly. Right.
00:34:23
Speaker
And just being able to, anything within his line of sight, just pull and move around. Okay. i That is pretty brutal, but we, you know, once again, the line of sight. I think, I think you could, I think you could fuck them up pretty easy. Yeah. I might have to tweak that a little bit for sure. But, you know, Hey, if we wanted to give trickster a better, a better conclusion, there you go. That's what we do. Or he just stays.
00:34:51
Speaker
He just stays all locked up. Yeah, I mean both are satisfying. Yeah.
00:34:59
Speaker
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00:35:26
Speaker
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00:35:43
Speaker
I do I do really enjoy going through Killington. I think that is a great. A very good opener.
00:35:55
Speaker
Honestly, I said it before on like, what, what show would I want for worm? I thought it was that our voicemail. It was our voicemail. Uh, what would I want worm like as my own show I get to do. And I would love to do the small town detective trying to figure out. Yeah, that was oh yeah what superhero or what, what, what villainy is going on in my town. Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
Um, sort of to this setting of season four of true detective and like Alaska and the dark and it's all creepy and everything. Right. right ah In Killington scratches that, uh, you know, that in the snow walking around, everything feels like it's almost cast in red light. When I read it, you know, it's, it's just everything's ritualistic and symbolic and sometimes wanton and random, but like,
00:36:50
Speaker
you know they' They've got the numbers on all the bodies. like It is pretty good, um visually speaking. I think the ambiance is there. So I don't know that I wanna get rid of that, but I don't know if I also, I don't want that as the opener necessarily.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah. It would slap though. Yeah. I mean, I imagine we'll probably have to, and what they I do like that. We'll probably sit down and and kind of, I mean, obviously we'll need to for our season finale, but we'll need to kind of hash out exactly where these episodes begin and end. i don't i don't I don't hate that. I do like that.
Opening Episode Ideas and Foreshadowing
00:37:26
Speaker
I think it kind of just depends on how we want to start the start the whole season, you know, and end and end season four.
00:37:32
Speaker
Essentially. um Yeah, that's good. and Yeah, i I think a soft eye soft pitch. We open on fighting Topsy and them. OK, do we want to fight Jack or like be tracking down Jack in the first episode? Or begin that hunt at the end of the first episode?
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah, right. And again, I think it probably depends on how we want to end season four, because if you don't end season four with Jack waking up or making himself known or some sort of Jack cliffhanger, then I think I don't think you can start with him here. I think you'd have to end. In fact, yeah actually, now that we're kind of talking about it, I kind of like that better because you could start to this season with them fighting some crazy threat.
00:38:28
Speaker
Again, however you want to bridge the seasons, we'll come across that bridge. um And they're, you know, it's this terrible, it's this crazy threat. Who are these guys? What's going on? Yada, yada, barely survive. And then reveal at the end of the episode that, oh, these were Jack's recruits. He's back. You know, pull a hole. Prisoner, prisoner of Azkaban. He's back.
00:38:56
Speaker
um You must not be named yeah Jacob Slashington. Yeah. I like the idea of like they capture or straight up kill. We'll go kill one of these crazy villains and you know, clutched in their hand as a note. And the note reads at the top, the rules of the game. Yeah. Right. And you're like my mother dad fucker.
00:39:25
Speaker
Like but yeah you don't even need to explain the rules. You just see it in their hand and you're like, I know what this is. Yeah. Let's open it up. It's a little birthday card.
00:39:36
Speaker
Oh, it's this happy birthday Theo on it. ah Oh, yes. Or happy anniversary or something like that. Happy anniversary. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Oh yeah. Time's up. Yep. I like that.
00:39:55
Speaker
Um, yeah, in that case, we make this our first episode is your normal. It's just, you know, regular day in Chicago. Uh, the bears, uh, weavers over here fighting the Topsy Derby gang with the ad apps, but then, uh, they go down and you know, she's training with Theo there, you see, and she's training them like Mike Ditka.
00:40:22
Speaker
Uh, trained the bears and their winning seasons. And, uh, I can't do that forever. I appreciated the length of the bit. That was good. It was going, ah do you committed respect. So, so strength, the, oh, we get a little bit more of that back and forth. Keep that up. Maybe some Yamada. Love that little Yamada. Yeah. Yeah. Some dragon, some defiant setting, setting the normalcy. Right. What's going on.
00:40:51
Speaker
Maybe, ah maybe a phone call to Danny. You know, we love that. Yep. And then we get like, Hey, uh, dragon goes like, Hey, can I grab you? Maybe, maybe not you and Theo, or like there's somebody in Chicago. We'll just go there. Somebody in Chicago, uh, doing some weird death stuff. Can you come take a look at it? You know, we'll just say this is a regular, regular killing, but it's super weird.
00:41:18
Speaker
Um, so they go, they look at it and they're like, wow, this is some weird power. And the the episode revolves around figuring out the power. Like, how are they doing this? And psychosoma would be a great one because psychosoma is a real, you know, fucking with their heads and you could have the characters hearing things. Right. Uh, that they think the other people are saying yada yada. And ultimately, you know, the kill psychosoma.
00:41:47
Speaker
or whatnot, and they find the birthday card that says happy anniversary Theo. And they're like, shit, Jack is back. And maybe he's got some rules for recruitment, a new game he wants to play. I like it. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. I like it. Ooh, the bodies still have the numbers on them. Oh yeah, yeah. But, but these are like,
00:42:16
Speaker
death number one, death number two. and And until we get to the end of that, we don't realize that this is a count up to 1000 people that he's go planning on murdering. Not personally, he's getting other people to murder them. o right um yeah Part of the recruitment drive. Yeah, I know the numbered bodies. that would that would That would be very good. That would work well. Adds to the serial killer vibe. Yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would be a great op first episode, especially even if you get psychosoma at the end. I mean, psychosoma would be a very fun serial killer with some creepy powers that fuck with perception. That is psychosoma, right? Wait, who's the screamer? Screamer. Screamer's who I was talking about. But psychosoma also, psychosoma does the gas clouds. Screamer's the one I was thinking about with the auditory stuff. No, Nyx does the gas clouds. Nyx does the glass clouds? What does psychosoma do?
00:43:12
Speaker
I'm so confused. ah so useless Yeah. See, uh, this is what I remember. This is why all those, they, they all blended together when I read them the first time. It's so hard. Uh, would you like me to read it? Yes, please. Yes. It's like a somewhat raps people and semi real illusions of monsters that he directs. That's right. Because they killed the one kid. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. Cause they think the one person's a bad guy and they burn him.
00:43:41
Speaker
And it turned it out to be one of the wards. Just a nameless ward and they don't even mention it ever again. Yeah. Yeah. But I stand by what I said would also, that would still be a good one. It would be scary. I think screamer would be a scary one because like using the voice to like lure people, make them think it's somebody else, like their comms or something like that. Yeah. You know, you could separate the group and then Yeah. I think that would be a fun one. I like it. Yeah. ah you You really, if you stuck with the serial killer bit for the first one, nice guy would be another fucking great one. Oh yeah. Like imagine an episode of nice guy. Yeah. I mean, that'd be, he's like, it's perfect. And I, and honestly that would fix a lot of my problems about getting away from the fights. Cause we're going to have a, we're going to have,
00:44:36
Speaker
a ton of big, big fights in the end of the season. So we got to save that budget up. You know what I'm saying? We're going to be having end game level fights. And we need to save that by having some law and order SVU.
00:44:52
Speaker
and check
00:44:55
Speaker
There you go. There you go. Otherwise, uh, I think we'll have a lot more to say in the next dissecting, but I don't have any other notes for this one. Yeah, it's I don't have too much more. i guess I just think the last thing to touch on, and maybe we don't really need to touch on it, because I'll be honest, I think it's close to perfect.
Theo vs. Jack: Final Fight and Its Impact
00:45:16
Speaker
um Just the final, the the bit of the fight between Theo and Jack into Jack's defeat slash Sion's release. I don't think there's there's almost nothing I think I'd want to change here.
00:45:32
Speaker
except maybe making it just a bit more obvious that Theo essentially figures out ah Jack's sort of passive ability. um Maybe making that a ah tad more obvious. But other than that, I i visually, I think that final fight will translate really well.
00:46:00
Speaker
um In fact, of all the fights in all of worm, one of my biggest gripes of them. if I could have a gripe because it's really hard to, I'm nitpicking here, um is that a lot of the fights lack, in my opinion, a bit of the personal feel to them outside of like little mini moments that Taylor has with some of her opponents, right? Like lung and stuff like that, I think are really good. I know what you mean. Yeah. But there's like, there's just a lack of like personality to the fights.
00:46:32
Speaker
which I think Theo and Jack is full of. And those types of conflicts I think are or really, really easy to adapt visually because it just gives another avenue for audiences to sort of appreciate that. Like two good actors being able to like trade banter and back and forth and blows and fights. Like this fight, I think will look really good. And I get so excited about a thing that's never going to happen. Come on. wildbo find Find the right studio. We beg of you.
00:47:04
Speaker
ah But yeah, no, all that to say, I really, really like the ending of this arc. I think it's gonna, I think it would translate very, very well to film or television. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I was thinking, right? As you said that, like, I hope you find the right studio. And it made me think for just a second that because worm is so very universally beloved by the wild bo community,
00:47:32
Speaker
And, and like you've said before, the perfect diversion of worm already exists. It's called
Potential Adaptations and Media Comparisons
00:47:38
Speaker
worm. It's called web serial and you can read it. Yep. But I think i I go again. That I think ward the sequel needs more narrative work to make it flow better. Like it would do, it would actually probably improve with a lot of editing.
00:48:02
Speaker
and being done as a show. And in terms of popularity, it was very much what I felt like seemed like a 50-50, which what I'm thinking here is, I think people might be a lot more open to having ward adapted rather than worm.
00:48:27
Speaker
Uh, interesting likely people being fans of, you mean fans of, of, of the story. Yeah. Um, well, and not just fans of the story, but the people who aren't the fans of the story, like, oh, well, I didn't like ward. So like, you know, ward take two. I see what you're saying. Yeah. You know, it's a second take. You could do a second take on something that people were, um, you know, if he on.
00:48:55
Speaker
Gotcha. Interesting. Which, you know, is one thing I think about. I think about remakes. We're talking about remakes. and People don't need to remake good stuff. You really don't. ah You know, does do things end up being good? Like Dune? Absolutely. But if we're going to remake something, find something that like had that nugget of like, yeah, there there was something here, but it just it what it wasn't done well. you know It wasn't handled well by whoever did you know was the writer for it or the the director. I think about this with a lot of books I read where I'm like, dang,
00:49:39
Speaker
This had the, you know, the first chapter where they introduced the world. This was a really interesting idea that a better writer would have made good. Yeah. And I think about that. Maybe, you know, maybe with Ward where like, or, or, you know, pick, pick any work that is not beloved, you know, go dig through some old movie scraps and go.
00:50:04
Speaker
Ah, we need to remake RoboCop. You don't need to meet remake RoboCop. You need to remake, I don't know, Lawn Mower Man. right Right. Yeah. That's, I like that. That's a good point. Um, be interesting. That'd be interesting. It'd be interesting to see what, uh, what people have to say about that. Again, of course I haven't read Ward yet, so I can't weigh in just yet. I can't wait. I'll be curious. That'll be fun. Be fun to talk about. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:36
Speaker
All right. I think that wraps us up. I mean, I think we're, I think we're good. I think we're kind of got a traje a trajectory here and some exciting arcs to come as we wrap up this entire show somehow. Geez. Also one thing we can't change at all.
00:50:56
Speaker
huh UK's got to go. Sorry. UK's got to go. It's gone. Blowing up England.
00:51:08
Speaker
yeah oh my god Blowing up England. yeah On that note, take that you worms. Take that you worms. See you next time.